Yarn accumulator

ABSTRACT

Semi-automatic apparatus to accumulate and pay out yarn to a yarn processing machine which is operating continuously. The apparatus employs a retractable accumulator or storage drum on which yarn is wound to supply the yarn processing machine while a new yarn package is placed in the creel to supply the machine.

United States Patent ng [451 Oct. 28, 1975 YARN ACCUMULATOR 3,637,1491/1972 Frei 242 47.12 x 3,782,661 l/l974 Deniega et al.. 242/47.l2 [75]Inventor. Herbert R. King, Spartanburg, SC. 3,796,386 3/1974 Tame242M701 Assignee; Deering Re h 3,822,833 7/1974 Fecker 242/47. 1 2

Corporation, Spartanburg, SC. G Primary Examiner-Stanley N. ilreath [22]Flled 1974 Attorney, Agent, or Firml-l. William Petry; Earle R. 21 Appl.No.: 456,696 Marden [52] US. Cl 242/47.0l; 242/18 R [51] Int. Cl. B6551/20 [57]. ABSTRACT [58] Field of Search ..242 47.01 47.13,Sam-automatic apparatus to accumulate and P y out 18 R 47 ya'rn to ayarn processing machine which is operating continuously. The apparatusemploys a retractable accumulator or storage drum on which yarn is woundto [56] References Cited supply the yarn processing machine while a newyarn UNITED STATES PATENTS Hickman 242/47 X package is placed in thecreel to supply the machine.

11 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures 5 U8. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 1 of 5US. Patent 'Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 2 of5 3,915,403

U.S. Patent 0a. 28, 1975 Sheet 3 of5 3,915,403

Fla-4- Fla-5" US. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 4 of5 3,915,403

FIG-'7- US. Patent Oct. 28, 1975 Sheet 5 of5 3,915,403

YARN ACCUMULATOR In processing yarn through a machine in a continuousfashion, it is customary to double creel supply packages by tying theleading end of the second package to the trailing (or tail) end of arunning package so that when yarn has been depleted from the firstpackage, it automatically transfers to the second. There are numerousoccasions of a supply yarn package having no transfer tail, eitherbecause the tail being covered by subsequent winding or being brokenthrough handling. In some cases, all of the supply yarn can be utilizedfrom a tailless package merely by allowing the package to run completelyempty, creel in a full package and rethread the machine. However, onsome multiple-end processing machines, rethreading a new end is verydifficult, time consuming and, in some cases, impossible. Some ratherprimitive means for induced creeling have been devised whereby an almostempty tailless package may be removed from the creel and the positionrecreeled without losing the running end of yarn. One method of currentpractice requires two persons; one diverts the running end around aforefinger, pencil or other smooth object, walks away from the normalyarn path removing yarn from the supply package at a greater than normalupwinding speed, allowing the yarn to slide around the pencil at itsnormal feed rate into the machine. This accumulates a surplus of yarn ofa sufficient length to supply the machine as the person slowly walksback to the creel position at machine feed rate. During the walking backperiod, the second person removes the nearly empty package and creels ina full package. This method, although it is usually about 75%successful, has several disadvantages. Due to certain feed rate speeds,a considerable length (30-50 yards) must be strung out, thus entailingthe crossing of cross aisles between machines. (Sometimes a third partyis recruited to direct traffic while the accumulated yarn is across anaisle.) Yarn usually contacts the floor, causing it to become soiled,snagged or broken. In some locations, there is not sufficient space forpaying out surplus yarn, and, on occasion, a helper" may not be readilyavailable when a package (or packages) needs creeling out.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a new and novelapparatus to accumulate yarn to supply a continuously operating yarnprocessing machine when a new yarn package is being creeled in.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become clearlyapparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of the new and improved yarnaccumulator;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the yarn accumulator taken on line22 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 3 is a blown-up view of the yarn accumulator drum in its extendedposition;

FIG. 4 is a left hand end view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a view taken on line 66 of FIG. 2 showing FIG. 9 is across-sectional view taken on line 99 of FIG. 2 illustrating the yarnnotch cover;

FIG. 10 is a right hand elevation view of FIG. 2 with parts broken awayfor clarity;

FIG. 11 is a top view of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 12 is a left hand elevation view of FIG. 10.

FIG. 1 illustrates the overall machine 10 which is mounted on the dolly12 by means of an upright support 14 on which is mounted the control box16 and a horizontal support member 18. The horizontal support member 18is connected at its outer end to the dolly handle 20. The machine 10 isconnected to the upright support 14 by suitable means such as bolts 22.

The machine 10 is driven by motor 24 mounted by suitable bolts to thewall member 28 (FIG. 2) integrally connected to the frame 30. The motor24 through motor shaft 32, gear 34, gear 36 and gear 38 drives therotable shaft 40. Shaft 40 rotates in sintered sleeve bearings 42 andsupport rollers 44 located against collars 46 and which rotate with theshaft 40 and maintains the longitudinal position thereof. For reasonshereinafter explained the wall members 28 and 47, bearings 42, gear 38and the shaft 40 have an elongated notch 48 therein.

Connected to the frame member 30 is an upright triangular member 50 ontop of which is mounted a pigtail yarn guide 52. Secured to the outsidethereof is a support member 54 (FIG. 10) which rotably supports a shaft56 which projects inwardly through the wall member 28 and has a collar58 (FIG. 12) attached thereto. Attached to the top portion is a shaft 60with a handle knob 62 thereon while attached to the bottom is a lever 64and a spring 66 to bias the handle in either the off or on position.Attached to the other side of the wall member 28 to the shaft 56 isanother collar 67 to which is integrally attached a lever 68. Pivotallyconnected to the lever 68 is a lever arm 70 which has a rounded portion72 which engages a notch in the collar 46 to align the notches 48 of thevarious members while the other end is pivotally connected to anotherlever arm 73. The lever 73 is pivotally connected to the wall member 28at 74. Attached to the shaft 56 adjacent the lever member 54 is anothercollar member 76 to which is attached a yarn retainer 78 which has asemi-circular yarn engaging portion 80 at the end thereof. Yarn retainer78 maintains the yarn in elongated notch 48 during winding while levers54, 68 and 70 move the rounded portion 72 into the notch in collar 46 toalign and maintain the alignment of the notches during operation of themachine.

Also driven by the motor 24 is the winding drum 82 which has a flange 84attached thereto with a yarn slot 85 therein and is driven by the shaft40. Mounted within the winding drum 82 is a storage drum 86 which isfixed at one end to non-rotable traversing shaft 88 on the outer end ofwhich is mounted, by suitable ball bearings 89, a freely rotating flyer90 having yarn slots 92 therein. Mounted outboard of the flyer 90 on asuitable support 94 is a pigtail guide 96.

Shaft 88 is supported inside the rotating shaft 40 by sleeve bearings 98and 100 and has a center portion 102 machined with gear teeth and thenthreaded with screw threads. Mounted against the bulkhead of the windingdrum 82 is a yoke 104 (see FIGS. 2 and 5) slidably mounted in guides 106and 108 and spring loaded toward the up position by springs 110. Mountedto the yoke 104 is a gear 112 in mesh with the gear teeth of the shaft88 which rotates as the winding drum rotates. Driven by the gear 112 isa second gear 114 which has a disc 116 connected thereto with threads onthe periphery thereof engaging the threads on the outer surface of theshaft 88. It can be seen that the gears 112 and 114 along with disc 116are in effect planet gears revolving around the sun gear section of theshaft 88. Assuming that the winding drum is rotating in a clockwisedirection, then the gear 112 also rotates in the clockwise direction andwill cause the disc 1 16 through gear 114 to rotate in thecounterclockwise direction as it moves around the shaft 88. The numberof gear teeth on the gears 112 and 1 14 is identical and is greater thanthe number of teeth on the gear portion 102 of the shaft to cause thescrew threads on the disc 116 to move the shaft 88 to the leftincrementally on each rotation of the shaft 40 for reasons hereinafterexplained. The selection of the number of gear teeth of the variousgears depends on the amount of desired traverse of the shaft 40 for eachrotation thereof.

In order to stop where the traverse of the shaft 88 reaches the outerdesired limit, a hole 118 is provided through the frame member 47,sleeve bearing 42 and shaft 40 at an angle of approximately 30 from thehorizontal centerline of the shaft 40 (FIG. 8). Mounted on one side ofthe hole 118 is a light source 120 and mounted on the other side of theopening is a photocell 122. When the shaft 40 has traversed to the pointwhere the end thereof has cleared the opening 1 18, the photocell willsee the light source and in response thereto actuates a relay to openthe circuit to the motor 24 to stop the operation of the accumulator.

Pivotally secured in an opening 124 in the flange 84 is a yarn guidemember 126 which has a cam surface 128 on one end thereof and is securedin the down (or solid line position) by a spring loaded latch member 130(FIG. 6) mounted on the outside face of the flange 84. When the yarnguide member is pivoted to the up position the cam surface 128 will pushthe yoke 104 downward against the bias of springs 110 to cause thethreads of the disc 116 to be disengaged from the shaft 88 to allow theshaft 88 and associated drum to be manually returned to its nested orstarting position.

FIG. 9 shows in cross-section an arrangement to maintain the yarn in theelongated notch 48. A notch cover 132 is secured to a lever member 134which in turn is secured to a pivotally mounted lever arm 136. The leverarm 136 is connected to a lightly tensioned spring 138 which maintainsthe slot or notch 48 open when the shaft 40 is not rotating but allowsthe cover 132 through the linkage 134 to slide over the notch 48 whenthe shaft 40 is rotating due to the centrifugal force in the lever 136causing it to pivot outwardly from the shaft 40.

OPERATION When a yarn package is at the point that it has to be replacedwith a new full yarn package the accumulator 10 is moved into closeproximity thereto and the running end to the continuously operating yarnconsuming machine is threaded into the accumulator. This is accomplishedby initially running the yarn through the pigtail guide 52, flange slot85, over the flyer 90 and out pigtail guide 96. Then yarn guide member126 (now in dotted position) is depressed to the solid line positioncausing the yarn to enter ceramic eyelet 140 and be pushed down into theelongated notch 48. Then the motor is started to rotate the winding drum82. As

the drum begins to rotate the yarn is caught in one of the notches 92 ofthe flyer 90. Yarn is then held back by the counter inertia of the flyerand is pulled down and deposited onto the surface of storage drum 86which is counter balanced against rotation by a suitable counterweight142. Since the rotational winding speed of the winding drum 82 issubstantially greater than the speed of yarn being unwound over end fromthe storage drum 86, yarn is wrapped around the storage drum. Asdescribed previously, to prevent the yarn from overlapping on thestorage drum, the shaft 88 is traversed outwardly as the winding drumrotates to lay the yarn down side by side on the storage drum 86. Whenthe storage drum reaches its outer traversing limit the light source 120and photocell 122 will stop the motor 24. Yarn removal from the creelpackage then ceases while the processing machine continues to use yarnthat has been accumulated on the storage drum 86. In the meantime theoperator is replacing the almost empty yarn package with a full packageand tied the end to the end of yarn of the running length of yarn. Thenthe yarn guide member 126 is raised to release the yarn and when yarn iscompletely wound off the storage drum it is released from the machine10.

When the yarn has been released from the machine and the cam surfae 128has slid the yoke 104 downwardly to release the screw threads of thedisc 116 from the screw threads of the shaft 88, the shaft 88 and drum86 can be manually returned to the nesting position so that theaccumulator will be ready for the next yarn package replacementoperation.

The above-described machine allows a single operator to easily andefficiently replace the almost empty yarn packages of a creel which issupplying yarn to a continuously operating machine with a minimum amountof yarn breaks.

Although I have described specifically the preferred embodiment of myinvention, 1 contemplate that changes may be made without departing fromthe scope or spirit of the invention, and I desire to be limited only bythe scope of the claims.

That which is claimed is:

1. A machine to supply yarn to a continuously operating yarn consumingmachine comprising: a frame, a first hollow shaft member rotablysupported in said frame, a hollow winding drum mounted on said firstshaft member, a second shaft member slidably mounted in said first shaftmember, means to move said second shaft member in a linear direction, astorage drum mounted on said second shaft member having a portionthereof projecting into said winding drum, means to supply yarn to saidwinding drum, flyer means mounted on said storage drum means to rotatethe winding drum to cause the yarn from said winding drum to wind onsaid storage drum in a side by side relationship, and means to guideyarn away from said storage drum to a point of use.

2. The machine of claim 1 wherein said means to supply yarn to saidwinding drum includes an elongated notch in said hollow shaft member.

3. The machine of claim 2 wherein said means to supply yarn includes ameans to retain the yarn in said elongated notch when said hollow shaftmember is rotating.

4. The machine of claim 2 wherein said means to retain yarn includes aslide and lever means operably associated with said hollow shaft member.

5. The machine of claim 4 wherein said second shaft member is mountedinside said first shaft member and has a threaded portion and said meansto move said second shaft member in a linear direction includes anotherthreaded member in contact with said second shaft member and operablyassociated with said drive means.

6. The machine of claim 5 wherein a means is operably associated withsaid second shaft member to stop said drive means when said second shaftmember has moved to a predetermined position.

7. The machine of claim 1 wherein the central portion of said secondshaft member has gear teeth thereon with the outer surface thereofthreaded, said drive means including a disc member with threads on theouter periphery to cause said second shaft member to move outwardly fromsaid winding drum as said winding drum rotates.

8. The machine of claim 7 wherein said drive means includes a gearmeshed with the gear portion of said second shaft member, a second gearin mesh with first gear and said disc member being connected to saidsecond gear.

9. The machine of claim 8 wherein said yarn supply means includes anelongated notch in said hollow shaft member and a pivotally mountedmeans to guide yarn into the elongated notch.

10. The machine of claim 9 wherein said disc member is secured in aslidably mounted yoke member, said yoke member being biased by springsto cause said disc member to engage the threaded portion of said secondshaft member.

11. The machine of claim 10 wherein said pivotally mounted means has acam portion connected thereto in engagement with said yoke member toslide said disc member against the bias of the springs away from thethreaded portion of said second shaft member.

l i l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent3.915,403 Dated October 28, 1975 fls) Herbert R. King It is certifiedthat error appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, Claim 1, line 56, insert between "drum" and "means".

line 28, "surfae" should be -surface--.

5igncd and fiealcd this twenty-third Day of March 1976 srn Arrest:

RUTH C. MASON C. MARSHALL DANN Arresting Officer Commissioner of Patentsand Trademarks

1. A machine to supply yarn to a continuously operating yarn consumingmachine comprising: a frame, a first hollow shaft member rotablysupported in said frame, a hollow winding drum mounted on said firstshaft member, a second shaft member slidably mounted in said first shaftmember, means to move said second shaft member in a linear direction, astorage drum mounted on said second shaft member having a portionthereof projecting into said winding drum, means to supply yarn to saidwinding drum, flyer means mounted on said storage drum, means to rotatethe winding drum to cause the yarn from said winding drum to wind onsaid storage drum in a side by side relationship, and means to guideyarn away from said storage drum to a point of use.
 2. The machine ofclaim 1 wherein said means to supply yarn to said winding drum includesan elongated notch in said hollow shaft member.
 3. The machine of claim2 wherein said means to supply yarn includes a means to retain the yarnin said elongated notch when said hollow shaft member is rotating. 4.The machine of claim 2 wherein said means to retain yarn includes aslide and lever means operably associated with said hollow shaft member.5. The machine of claim 4 wherein said second shaft member is mountedinside said first shaft member and has a threaded portion and said meansto move said second shaft member in a linear direction includes anotherthreaded member in contact with said second shaft member and operablyassociated with said drive means.
 6. The machine of claim 5 wherein ameans is operably associated with said second shaft member to stop saiddrive means when said second shaft member has moved to a predeterminedposition.
 7. The machine of claim 1 wherein the central portion of saidsecond shaft member has gear teeth thereon with the outer surfacethereof threaded, said drive means including a disc member with threadson the outer periphery to cause said second shaft member to moveoutwardly from said winding drum as said winding drum rotates.
 8. Themachine of claim 7 wherein said drive means includes a gear meshed withthe gear portion of said second shaft member, a second gear in mesh withfirst gear and said disc member being connected to said second gear. 9.The machine of claim 8 wherein said yarn supply means includes anelongated notch in said hollow shaft member and a pivotally mountedmeans to guide yarn into the elongated notch.
 10. The machine of claim 9wherein said disc member is secured in a slidably mounted yoke member,said yoke member being biased by springs to cause said disc membEr toengage the threaded portion of said second shaft member.
 11. The machineof claim 10 wherein said pivotally mounted means has a cam portionconnected thereto in engagement with said yoke member to slide said discmember against the bias of the springs away from the threaded portion ofsaid second shaft member.